December 16, 2013

Canada and USA to merge


Possible merger of Canada and the USA in a single currency union EU style or even more.
For the Wall St. Journal.


Article was titled "North-American Union" so I explored broader that just currency.

I tried just straight ballpoint pen with a little digital color, but it just wasn't working as well as my usual gouache style, so I repainted the clothes that way.









November 13, 2013

Double Dutch




Full page illustration for Holland Herald the inflight magazine of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

 Subject was how success at chess has more to do with practice than intelligence. 

This was the spot on the next page.

In the magazine.




"Personal Debt" For Dutch bank De Lage Landen


Here's the layout really, really small (they didn't want the article readable since it's an internal magazine and has sensitive information)





November 6, 2013

Foreign Policy Magazine


Headline to work with was: The military’s Chicken Littles want you to think the sky is falling. Don’t believe them: America has never been safer.

They ended up going more the budget cut route. But I did have fun with the headline.

October 1, 2013

White House/Kremlin Hotline


2014 calendar for the Progressive. I got the month of August.

August 30 1963 - the White House/Kremlin ‘hot line’ installed, after the near disaster of the Cuban Missile Crisis.


I thought B would be picked, but I was pleasantly surprised, thanks Nick!

September 23, 2013

Cow's Milk for Babies




 Here's a quick one for the Wall St. Journal Health section on the debate of cow's milk for babies.

Holstein cows have such graphic possibilities I knew this was going to be a fun job. Thanks Pete!

August 29, 2013

Standford redesign by Pentagram


Pentagram (the NYC office), just redesigned Stanford's School of Business Magazine.


I always feel honored and pressure on a redesign, because they are putting alot of trust in you.


The editors were pleased apparently, because they requested me for the next issue.
This one was about working from home vs. the office.


 I added some color to their favorite roughs to help them pick.



Thanks Shigeto!


Here's the cover of the magazine (paper illustration by Owen Gildersleeve) which I thought turned out great!




July 24, 2013

Scientific American





For Scientific American.

On the barrier around the brain that prevents certain drugs from entering the brain.

Ballpoint pen and ink brush to get the veins right.

Making a face and seeming anatomically correct at the same time, took a few attempts.



July 5, 2013

Music You Hate



Trying to learn to appreciate the music you hate, for the LA Times.

My favorite was the skunk note, but I think Paul was the wiser to choose the trash can headphones.



June 14, 2013

Applied Arts 2013 Illustration Annual

I was glad to see this personal piece I did get into the latest Applied Arts Annual. Thanks judges!

May 20, 2013

Lenin




Got to do a portrait of Lenin for the Wall Street Journal last week.

I love doing conceptual historical portraits, it was a dream job for me.

The article talked alot about Lenin's infamous micromanaging during the a sealed train ride from Switzerland to Russia in 1917, so I had to include the train angle.

I was glad my AD of AD's Keith Webb went with the more general graphic portrait...
But it still needed some work, here's a bit of the finessing....

May 13, 2013

Spin Doctors

 "Spin Doctors"  for M le magazine du Monde, Paris.
Art directed by Federica Rossi.

I don't think I had worked for a french client before, so that was exciting.
Luckily her english was great.

They wanted a secondary smaller illustration as well.


The spread, too bad I can't read french.

And in print I got in the mail.
Merci Federica!









April 22, 2013

Earth Day



Did this for the April 2013 cover of the Progressive, but was waiting to post it until today.
Article was on climate activism.

I don't usually go into color in roughs, but I had a favorite and wanted to make sure it would work and sell it a bitat the same time. Luckily Nick, the AD on this agreed.

I wanted to add more layers to the image, but pulled back when I remembered Nick had told me to remember to accomodate the address label and bar code in the design.

I wish I would have had a bit more time on it to make some subtle changes to make the smoke curl more naturally around the face and fist, but making the deadline was most important.



This poster on the wall at Facebook HQ always makes me feel better when that happens.





March 22, 2013

Music Monopoly



On Music company monopolies for the Huffington Post Magazine.

Here's the roughs, since the story was about a merger, I had to cover that angle as well.


The magazine is only on the iPad so the spread in this case was vertical as you tabbed down.

They cropped it nicely for the contents page.


March 18, 2013

Spouse Insider Trading


For a piece on spouses spying on each other's corporate knowledge and using the information to do some insider trading. I really loved how the typography turned out, thanks to Siung.

Here's the roughs. I liked the top one with the arrow lips at the time, but I feel Siung made the better choice as usual.


The playing around with arrows to make those lips wasn't a waste though. It gave me a big head start on this quick little piece on "Women Investors" for my man Keith at the Wall St. Journal a few weeks later.